St. Augustine
1Ex quo Hipponem litterae benignitatis tuae per sanctum fratrem nostrum Firmum presbyterum directae me absente venerunt, posteaquam illas, cum remeassem, quamvis iam inde profecto earum perlatore legere potui, haec prima eademque gratissima rescribendi occurrit occasio per dilectissimum filium nostrum acolithum Albinum. Quod autem, quibus simul scripsisti, tunc non eramus simul, ideo factum est, ut singulorum singulas, non unam amborum epistulam sumeres. A me quippe digressus est perlator huius, per venerabilem fratrem et coepiscopum meum Alypium, qui tuae sanctitati aliam rescriberet, transiturus. Ad quem etiam ipsas quas ego iam legeram, litteras tuas ipse portavit. Quae nos quanta laetitia perfuderint, quid homo nitatur loqui quod non potest eloqui? Nec te ipsum
Letters of St. Augustine
Since the letter your Grace sent by the hands of1 our holy brother, the priest Firmus, reached Hippo during my absence, and on my return I had the chance to read it only after the bearer of it had taken his departure, this first opportunity of replying (and it is a very welcome one too) is afforded by our well-beloved son, the acolyte Albinus.b Your letter, addressed to Alypius and myself together, came at a time when we were not together, so in consequence you receive a letter from each of us, not one in the common name of us both, for the bearer of this letter, having left me, will on his way pass by my revered brother and fellow-bishop, Alypius, so that he may write one for himself in reply to your Holiness; that letter of yours, after reading it, I sent on to him by the same bearer. As for the great joy with which your letter filled me, why should one attempt to utter feelings that defy utterance? Indeed, I am not sure that
- aSixtus was bishop of Rome from 432 to 440, when he was succeeded by Leo the Great. He had taken a leading part in condemning Pelagianism, though some of the Pelagians claimed that he was on their side (see § 1), and had intervened too in the Nestorian dispute. Augustine also addressed him in Ep. cxciv., a long theological discussion of the errors of Pelagianism. Firmus, the letter-bearer, appears several times in this capacity: visiting Jerome at Bethlehem in 405, he was entrusted with letters for Augustine (Ep. cxv.) and ten years later he is again with Jerome, later reaching Africa, where he is in communication with Augustine (Ep. cxxxiv.). He brings back an answer to the present letter (Ep. cxciv. 1).
- bAlbinus is mentioned as bearer of Epp. cxcii., cxciii. and cxciv. to Rome. The acolytes formed one of the minor orders in the Church, introduced about the beginning of the third century. Though the name is Greek (ἀκόλουθοι) the office was peculiar to the Western Church; in the rituals of the Greek Church, the word is only a synonym for sub-deacon. As the name implies, the acolytes were the immediate attendants and followers of the bishops; their specific duties were to light the candles of the church and to attend the officiating priest with wine for the Eucharist.